Personal Style

The Pretty Dress Guide to Packing for a Beach Holiday

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It’s surprising how much goes into packing for a holiday. I’m not one of those people who can just throw a few things in a bag and go, I like to plan.

Lets start with the shoes: One pair of trainers, one pair of nude-goes-with-everything heels, one pair of wedges, one pair of sandals and one pair of flip-flops. I nearly always end up sticking to sandals and flip-flops once I’m there, but I like to know I’ve got all the bases covered.

The easiest and best way to pack shoes is using a plastic carrier bag. I usually line the bottom of my suitcase with shoes and then pack smaller items around them, leaving a relatively flat surface for the clothes to lie on.

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Converse trainers from BrandAlley

The next staple is the little white dress – dressed up with wedges for the evening or down with sandals in the day.

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Dress: Topshop | Wedges: ASOS

I like outfits that can go from day to evening just by changing up the accessories. (Small hard-case clutches are great for hols as you can also use them for transporting jewellery – or anything else that might get damaged in transit). These are also some of my favourite combinations…

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Dress: Zara | Sandals: Oasis | Clutch: Next

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Playsuit: Jovonnista | Shoes: H&M | Clutch: Textile Federation via ASOS

At the beach I prefer light dresses that you can just throw on/off – maxi dresses are great but the best thing I ever bought, I got years ago from Orion. Their kimono dresses are incredibly light and the material doesn’t wrinkle so they can be chucked in your beach bag with no fuss.

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Orion

I love getting out on the water in a boat (motorboat that is… I can’t sail but I like to pretend I can by looking the part) so I’m a big fan of breton stripe tops.

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Top: F&F | Shorts: Warehouse | Sandals: F&F

And lastly: The Bikinis. I live in these things on holiday. You can never have too many right?

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Clockwise from top left: F&F | George | F&F | ASOS | South Beach via ASOS

Longer Length

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Jacket: Zara | Scarf: Purchased at a craft fair | Dress: ASOS
Tights: tightsplease.co.uk | Boots: Debenhams
Unimpressed Cat: Not for Sale

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The tall blogging community recently got very excited when ASOS launched its tall range. A lot of brands associated with ASOS followed suit and there’s now a great range to choose from. Just before the range launched ASOS drip-fed some items into it’s stock and I spotted this longer-length dress – it really is the perfect length for me. Usually I have trouble finding waisted items that sit right with my body proportions – but no such issues with this dress. If you’re 5’10” or over I’d definitely check it out. My cat might not have been too impressed but I was.

 

Butterflies

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When I turned 24, I spent my birthday visiting a castle in Wales, and in the garden they had a butterfly house. It was honestly one of the most magical places I’ve ever stepped inside, the butterflies floated around lazily on soft currents of warm, tropical air and everywhere you looked there was colour, grace and beauty. The image of a butterfly just spells out spring/summer to me – so here are my picks of the best butterfly prints out there.

(Clockwise from bottom left)
Butterfly print dress – Yumi £22.50
Butterfly print top – Oasis £18
Body wash – Anna Sui (via ASOS) £16
Watch – Olivia Burton (via Topshop) £95
Butterfly print scarf – Oasis (via ASOS) £16
Butterfly print cardigan – Warehouse £40
Butterfly mesh top – Anthropologie £68
Scent – Anna Sui (via ASOS) £31

Swift

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It’s no secret that I am a bit of a swiftie. A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to see her live in London. I’d been mooching round the city in the daytime, and had worn the dress below. It being the ‘Red’ tour though, everyone else at the concert was dressed to match the description (and accessorising with fairy lights!) … Anyways I was bemoaning my lack of Taylor-appropriate attire to my sister, when she quite rightly pointed out that I hadn’t missed the boat at all – I was wearing swifts.

So now I love this dress even more. Here’s how I dressed it up recently for a family meal out.

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Dress: Warehouse (Via ASOS) similar here
Tights: tightsplease.co.uk
Shoes: Next
Clutch: Textile Federation via ASOS

And the concert? It was pretty incredible.
Here’s short clip I filmed of Emeli Sande performing ‘Next to Me’ with Taylor Swift.

 

Sixties Shift

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I’ve refined my shopping habits in recent years and most of the things I buy these days tend to fall under the labels ‘classic’ and ‘timeless’. And this fits the bill – in fact when I looked at this photograph I thought ‘if it was in black and white, you might wonder if it had been taken in the sixties’.

The dress is a favourite, it’s heavy fabric – so perfect for winter – but it’s not overly warm for office-wear. And I’ve been enthusing about Charnos tights for ages – as I have quite long legs and these are the only brand I can find that fit me perfectly and don’t slip throughout the day.

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Dress: GAP | Bag: Accessorize
Tights: Tightsplease.co.uk (exact ones here)
Boots: Marta Jonsson at Debenhams

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Winter Rocks

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This has got to be one of my favourite places in the world, and only a few minutes drive from where I live. Though strangely, I don’t visit it that much. It’s such a spectacular view that I think if I went too often, I’d stop appreciating it as much.

But every now and again I’ll just jump in the car and go. Luckily, this time around I had my sister with me who very kindly took these photos – it was so windy I think the tripod would have blown over if I’d tried to self-shoot!

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Coat: George at Asda | Jeggings: Marks and Spencer | Boots: Debenhams

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Quilted Jumper: ASOS

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Bag: Aldo

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Mango Remembered

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So as it’s the season of office parties – I mean Christmas – I’ve been digging through the archives for things to wear, and I remembered taking pictures of this little gem of a dress, which I bought at the end of the summer. I love the unusual shape at the front of this dress, though I’ll probably take it a step further and dress it up with a bit of festive sparkle or a long slinky gold necklace when I next wear it.

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Dress: Mango | Sunglasses: Accessorize

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Last of the Summer Florals

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I meant to post this in August but, with one thing and another, I’m only just getting around to it. I love a good playsuit in Summer and this one fits perfectly. Sadly I had to cancel my summer hols when I fell ill earlier this month, so I’ve not been able to wear it this year… I tried making it work for winter by paring it with tights but the design and texture of the fabric didn’t really work for winter layering. It’s definitely a summer staple for next year.

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Playsuit: Glamorous
Ring: ASOS

All Wrapped Up for Autumn

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I said a while ago that I’d forgotten what it felt like to be cold… and boy, do I wish that was still the case. I am definitely suited to warmer climes. But the good news is I get to break into my Winter clothes now (I like to pack away some of my warmer clothes over Summer – it creates more space in the wardrobe and means you get a nice surprise in the Autumn!)

I wore this outfit for a trip into Manchester this weekend to buy a few bits and pieces for my new house.

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Jeans: Topshop Tall, Boots: Faith (via Debenhams)

The cardigan is from Marks and Spencer (similar here) and the belt is from Oliver Bonas. As it’s not-quite-arctic yet I was warm enough wandering around without a jacket too.

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In The Press

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Exciting news! I’ve just done my first ever interview with the lovely folks at The Fashion Network. I’ve not been blogging for long so I was really flattered to be asked – you can read the full article here.

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I also wanted to say sorry for being a bit lax on the blogging front recently. To cut a long story short: I’ve not been very well. But the good news is I am on the mend and I’ve started putting together lots of lovely new posts… stay tuned!